Why did Germann go crazy in the story "The Queen of Spades". Question: why Hermann from the story by A.S.

why Hermann from A.S. Pushkin " Queen of Spades"punished by madness?

Answers:

The hero of the story “The Queen of Spades” in the epilogue ends up in the hospital: “Hermann has gone crazy, he is sitting in the Obukhov hospital in room 17, does not answer any questions and mutters unusually quickly: “3,7, ace, 3,7, queen ...". In the 1830s, cards and mysticism - belief in the other world, in the wonderful and mysterious - enslaved the minds of the capital's nobles. This passion had an ideological basis. The time of Nikolaev's rule, the eradication of free thought, persecution and denunciations, an atmosphere of betrayal and lies, created a special unspiritual atmosphere of life. Cards became an outlet and an imitation of life: their passions raged in the card world, a battle was fought every day not for life, but for death, there was a test of will, courage, honor. The world of card passions subordinated a person. A.S. Pushkin had an idealistic concept about the special role of the Russian aristocracy in public life. But the hopes for the Russian aristocracy were not justified. It was in The Queen of Spades that he calculated with his illusions of the late 1820s, when he pinned his hopes on the tribal nobility and stigmatized the newly-minted aristocrats generated by the reigns of Peter and after Peter. Pushkin creates a pedigree ancient family Tomsky, tracing this family for almost a century, shows the fate of 3 generations of the count's family. The grandmother-countess and her husband lived idle, not burdening themselves with anything. They had four sons: "all four are desperate gamblers". One of them is the father of a young officer involved in the events, which takes place in 1830. The main occupation of the grandson is a card game. The history of the Tomsks is a degradation of an old noble family. This is a symbol of decline, impotence of the nobility, they burn their lives sitting at the card table. The world surrounding Hermann is ambiguous. Balls and cards until the morning, but we see the second face of the capital, hostile to man. Hermann is the main image-symbol of the story. He is an ordinary man: a young engineer, without a family, without a tribe - the son of a Russified German. He lived ascetically, dreamed of tripling or even septupling the modest capital left to him by his father. The only pleasure is watching the gambling. His philosophy is devoid of significance, poetry is alien to it. The meaning and content of Hermann's secret life are revealed historically and socially accurately - he was a player in his soul. He can restrain himself because he knows how to wait. He is driven by passion and calculation at the same time. Players tend to be adventurous. The secret life of the player Herman develops and exists in two plans - in real and generalized. In the first case, Hermann's pursuit of the opportunity that has turned up to him is revealed - to find out the secret of 3 cards and quickly increase his capital. In the image of Hermann, his actions, his play, the secret springs of the bourgeois age are revealed to us. Pushkin guessed right salient feature consciousness of a person of that society where everything is determined by money: he, this person, is a player. All life, built on competition, on the struggle of one person with another for happiness and his capital, is a duel, there is a game in which someone wins, someone is sure to lose and die. Hermann's ideals, his pursuit of a ghostly secret, are insane; meaningless, this is madness, recklessness. One can recall the features of Hermann's character. (Three correct cards are calculation, moderation, hard work. profession - engineer, soul - Mephistopheles, profile - Napoleon. Three evil deeds, passions are strong, imagination is fiery). The world that corrupted Hermann, killed the personality in him, is just as insane. Three latest maps, which Herman repeats, affirms the fatal inevitability of defeat after the first successes. Instead of an ace, a queen will definitely come out, the player at the decisive moment will “turn around”, as Herman “turned around”, as Napoleon “turned around” at the moment of his most gambling bet. ". A very difficult question, so I didn’t fit into 1 page. I think that you will choose the material you need for composing.

The hero of the story “The Queen of Spades” in the epilogue ends up in the hospital: “Hermann has gone crazy, he is sitting in the Obukhov hospital in room 17, does not answer any questions and mutters unusually quickly: “3,7, ace, 3,7, queen ...".
In the 1830s, cards and mysticism - belief in the other world, in the wonderful and mysterious - enslaved the minds of the capital's nobles. This passion had an ideological basis. The time of Nikolaev's rule, the eradication of free thought, persecution and denunciations, an atmosphere of betrayal and lies, created a special unspiritual atmosphere of life. Cards became an outlet and an imitation of life: their passions raged in the card world, a battle was fought every day not for life, but for death, there was a test of will, courage, honor. The world of card passions subordinated a person.
A.S. Pushkin had an idealistic concept about the special role of the Russian aristocracy in public life. But the hopes for the Russian aristocracy were not justified. It was in The Queen of Spades that he calculated with his illusions of the late 1820s, when he pinned his hopes on the tribal nobility and stigmatized the newly-minted aristocrats generated by the reigns of Peter and after Peter.
Pushkin creates a genealogy of the ancient Tomsk family, tracing this family for almost a century, shows the fate of 3 generations of the count family. The grandmother-countess and her husband lived idle, not burdening themselves with anything. They had four sons: "all four are desperate gamblers". One of them is the father of a young officer involved in the events, which takes place in 1830. The main occupation of the grandson is a card game.
The history of the Tomsks is a degradation of an old noble family. This is a symbol of decline, impotence of the nobility, they burn their lives sitting at the card table. The world surrounding Hermann is ambiguous. Balls and cards until the morning, but we see the second face of the capital, hostile to man.
Hermann is the main image-symbol of the story. He is an ordinary man: a young engineer, without a family, without a tribe - the son of a Russified German. He lived ascetically, dreamed of tripling or even septupling the modest capital left to him by his father. The only pleasure is watching the gambling. His philosophy is devoid of significance, poetry is alien to it. The meaning and content of Hermann's secret life are revealed historically and socially accurately - he was a player in his soul. He can restrain himself because he knows how to wait. He is driven by passion and calculation at the same time. Players tend to be adventurous. The secret life of the player Herman develops and exists in two plans - in real and generalized. In the first case, Hermann's pursuit of the opportunity that has turned up to him is revealed - to find out the secret of 3 cards and quickly increase his capital. In the image of Hermann, his actions, his play, the secret springs of the bourgeois age are revealed to us. Pushkin guessed a characteristic feature of the human consciousness of that society where everything is determined by money: he, this person, is a player. All life, built on competition, on the struggle of one person with another for happiness and his capital, is a duel, there is a game in which someone wins, someone is sure to lose and die.
Hermann's ideals, his pursuit of a ghostly secret, are insane; meaningless, this is madness, recklessness. One can recall the character traits of Hermann. (Three true cards are calculation, moderation, hard work. By nationality - German, by profession - engineer, soul - Mephistopheles, profile - Napoleon. Three villains, strong passions, imagination is fiery).
The world that corrupted Hermann, killed the personality in him, is just as insane.
The last three cards, which Herman repeats, affirm the fatal inevitability of defeat after the first successes. Instead of an ace, a queen will definitely come out, the player at the decisive moment will “turn around”, as Herman “turned around”, as Napoleon “turned around” at the moment of his most gambling bet. ".
A very difficult question, so I didn’t fit into 1 page. I think that you will choose the material you need for composing.

“Once we were playing cards with the horse guard Narumov.” After
games Tomsky told amazing story his grandmother, who knows
the secret of three cards, supposedly opened to her by the famous Saint-Germain, will certainly
winners if you bet on them in a row. Discussing this story
the players went home. This story seemed unbelievable.
to everyone, including Hermann, a young officer who never played,
but, without looking up, he followed the game until the morning. Grandmother
Tomsky, an old countess, is sitting in her dressing room, surrounded by maids.
Here, behind the hoop, is her pupil. Tomsky enters, he starts
small talk with the countess, but quickly leaves. Lizaveta Ivanovna,
the countess' pupil, left alone, looks out the window and sees a young
an officer whose appearance makes her blush. From this lesson
she is distracted by the countess, who gives the most contradictory orders and
that require their immediate implementation. Liza's life in the house
wayward and selfish old woman is intolerable. She is literally to blame.
in everything that annoys the Countess. Endless quibbles and whims
annoyed the proud girl who was looking forward to her
deliverer. That's why the appearance of the young officer she saw
for several days in a row standing on the street and looking at her window,
made her blush. This young man was none other than
Hermann. He was a man of strong passions and a fiery imagination,
whom only firmness of character saved from the delusions of youth.
Tomsky's anecdote inflamed his imagination, and he wanted to know the secret
three cards. This desire has become obsession who unwittingly brought him
to the house of the old countess, in one of the windows of which he noticed Lizaveta
Ivanovna. This minute became fatal. Hermann begins to provide
signs of attention to Lisa to sneak into the countess's house. He secretly sends
her a letter with a declaration of love. Lisa answers. Hermann in a new letter
demands a date. He writes to Lizaveta Ivanovna every day, and finally
gets her way: Lisa makes an appointment with him at the house at the time when
her hostess will be at the ball, and explains how to penetrate unnoticed
to the house. Barely waiting for the appointed time, Hermann enters the house
and sneaks into the Countess's office. Waiting for the countess to return, Hermann
goes to her bedroom. He begins to beg the Countess to open for him
the secret of three kart; seeing the resistance of the old woman, he begins to demand,
turns to threats and finally pulls out a gun. Seeing the gun, the old woman
falls in fear from her chair and dies. Returning together
with the countess from the ball, Lizaveta Ivanovna is afraid to meet in her room
Hermann and even feels some relief when there is no one in her
does not appear. She is brooding when Hermann suddenly enters
and announces the death of the old woman. Lisa learns that not her love is the goal
Hermann and that she became the unwitting culprit in the death of the countess. Repentance
torments her. At dawn, Hermann leaves the countess's house.
day Hermann is present at the funeral of the Countess. When saying goodbye to the deceased
he thought the old woman looked at him mockingly. in upset
he spends the day in feelings, drinks a lot of wine and falls asleep soundly at home.
Waking up late at night, he hears someone enter his room and recognizes
old countess. She reveals to him the secret of three cards, three, seven
and an ace, and demands that he marry Lizaveta Ivanovna, after which
disappears. Three, seven and ace haunted Hermann's imagination.
Unable to resist the temptation, he goes to the company of the famous
player Chekalinsky and puts a huge amount on the top three. His map
wins. The next day, he bet on the seven, and won again.
The next evening, Hermann is again at the table. He put the card
but instead of the expected ace in his hand was the queen of spades. To him
it seems that the lady narrowed her eyes and grinned... Image on the map
strikes him with his resemblance to the old countess.

It is unlikely that German's madness is accidental. It was during these years that the theme of madness was one of the most important in the dominant romantic literature. The concept of romantic madness is alien to Pushkin. Two great works written in Boldin, " Bronze Horseman"And" The Queen of Spades ", ended with the madness of the heroes. Eugene's madness is an unequal dispute with the despotic and. part. It freed the person from the captivity of humility that humiliated her.

By the whole course of events and the logic of the development of the main character of the story, Pushkin establishes an internally justified connection between madness as an ideological category and madness as a pathological category.

The insanely crazy idea - to realize the secret as soon as possible and get rich, "to force the treasure from the enchanted fortune" was already becoming a mania (painful mental disorder), which in early XIX centuries were designated as systematized nonsense. After losing - nervous shock– the human mind could not withstand the onslaught of the crazy world. Ideological madness has become pathological madness. Sitting in the hospital, Hermann seems to repeat the same three words - "three, seven, ace." To the point of madness, it was a symbolic expression of the idea of ​​winning and getting rich. Crazy Hermann doubles the manic formula of the spell - another one is added to the first group of cards: "Three, seven, queen", which symbolically symbolizes the player's loss, catastrophe. Now the motionless idea, which arbitrarily ousted all other thoughts from the diseased consciousness, has become different - the idea of ​​inevitable loss. The last three cards affirmed the fatal inevitability of defeat after the first successes. Instead of an ace, a queen will definitely come out, the player will “turn around” at the decisive moment. In the delirium of a mad Germany, the truth of a mad world where money cruelly dominated was revealed. Hermann's madness was a warning to mankind.

It should be remembered that the three words repeated by Hermann in the Obukhov hospital (the name of the three cards) are ambiguous. He mutters in a state of delirium what he repeated maniacally before he was in the hospital. The last, sixth chapter begins with a description of the state of Hermann, whose mental excitement reached extreme: "Two immovable ideas cannot exist together in a moral nature, just as two bodies cannot exist in physical world occupy the same place. Three, seven, ace - soon obscured in the imagination of Hermann image of the dead old women."

And is it not for this reason (still the same halo!) that the image of Hermann, drawn with such ruthlessness by Pushkin, evokes in us neither hatred, nor horror, nor contempt? Isn’t it born in our souls an unrequited compassion for the unfortunate one, who is sitting in the Obukhov hospital and, as it were, as a punishment to himself and an edification to others who repeats the name of the three cards created by his inflamed imagination and destroyed him: “Three, seven, ace! Three, seven, lady!”?

From what has been said, it is clear that Hermann's madness is not of a romantic type, that in Pushkin it, being realistically accurate, acquired symbolic meaning. However, the reflection of the romantic concept of madness as a liberation from the norms and laws of a vulgar, insignificant, cruel and inhuman life modern society nevertheless noticeable in the appearance of the crazy Hermann. Indeed, at the time when Pushkin wrote the story, the popular theme of madness in literature created a special atmosphere for the perception of The Queen of Spades by readers. Perhaps it is the halo of romantic madness that softens the somewhat gloomy colors with which Hermann is painted?

The idea of ​​his moral guilt before the countess was supplanted by the "fairy tale of three true cards." All his thoughts merged into one - "take advantage of the secret that cost him dearly." The secret is three cards that, as it seemed to him, the countess opened. That is why “three, seven, ace” did not leave his head and moved on his lips. When he saw a young girl, he said: “How slim she is! .. A real red three.” They asked him: “what time is it”, he answered: “five minutes to seven. Every pot-bellied man reminded him of an ace. Three, seven, ace - pursued him in a dream, taking on all possible forms ... "

Madness Germany is of a different type, it is a serious illness - the loss of reason, and not the romantic acquisition of freedom. That is why Pushkin clearly and categorically defined his position on this issue: “Hermann has gone mad. He is sitting in the Obukhov hospital in the 17th room ... "Disorder (insanity), and recklessness, "nonsense", actions, deeds and ideals, devoid of high meaning, humanity. The life of Hermann, his actions and the ideals professed by him are evaluated by the author, taking into account the two meanings of the word "madness" that existed in that era. Hermann's ideals, his pursuit of a ghostly secret - this is madness, recklessness, "nonsense". The world that corrupted Hermann and killed the personality in him is just as insane. That is why this characteristic of madness is ideological.

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Hermann is a young officer ("engineer"), the central character of a socio-philosophical story, each of the heroes of which is associated with a specific topic (Tomsky - with the theme of undeserved happiness; Lizaveta Ivanovna - with the theme of social humility; the old countess - with the theme of fate) and is endowed with one defining and unchanging feature. G. - first of all prudent, reasonable; it is underlined and German origin, and surname (the reader does not know his name), and even military specialty engineer.

G. first appears on the pages of the story in an episode with the horse guard Narumov, but, sitting up to 5 in the morning in the company of players, he never plays - "I am not able to sacrifice the necessary, hoping to acquire the superfluous." Ambition, strong passions, fiery imagination are suppressed in him by firmness of will. After listening to Tomsky's story about three cards, the secret of which was revealed 60 years ago to his grandmother Countess Anna Fedotovna by the legendary visionary Saint Germain, he exclaims: not "A chance", but "A fairy tale!" - because it excludes the possibility of irrational success.

Further, the reader sees G. standing in front of the windows of the poor pupil of the old countess, Liza; his appearance is romantic: a beaver collar covers his face, his black eyes sparkle, a quick blush flares up on his pale cheeks. However, G. is not a gallant character in the old French novel that the countess is reading, not fatal hero gothic novel (which the Countess denounces), not actor boring and peaceful Russian novel (brought to her by Tomsky), not even the “literary relative” of Erast from Karamzin’s story “ Poor Lisa". (The connection with this story is indicated not only by the name of the poor pupil, but also by the “foreign” vowel of the name of her “seducer”.) G. is rather the hero of a German petty-bourgeois novel, from which he borrows word and word his first letter to Lisa; this is the hero of the novel by calculation. He needs Lisa only as an obedient tool for the implementation of a well-thought-out plan - to master the secret of the three cards.

There is no contradiction here with Narumov's scene; a man of the bourgeois era, G. did not change, did not recognize the omnipotence of fate and the triumph of chance (on which any gambling- especially the pharaoh, which the countess played 60 years ago). Simply, after listening to the continuation of the story (about the deceased Chaplitsky, to whom Anna Fedotovna revealed the secret), G. was convinced of the effectiveness of the secret. This is logical; a one-time success can be random; the repetition of chance indicates the possibility of its transformation into a regularity; and regularity can be "calculated", rationalized, used. Until now, his three trump cards were - calculation, moderation and accuracy; from now on, mystery and adventurism paradoxically combined with the same calculation, with the same bourgeois thirst for money.

And here G. miscalculates in a terrible way. As soon as he set out to master the law of chance, to subordinate the mystery to his own goals, the mystery itself immediately took possession of him. This dependence, the "bondage" of the actions and thoughts of the hero (which he himself almost does not notice) begins to manifest itself immediately - and in everything.

Upon returning from Narumov, he has a dream about a game in which gold and banknotes are, as it were, demonized; then, already in reality, an unknown force brings him to the house of the old countess. The life and consciousness of G. instantly and completely obey the mysterious game of numbers, the meaning of which the reader does not understand for the time being. Pondering how to take possession of the secret, G. is ready to become the lover of the eighty-year-old countess - for she will die in a week (i.e., after 7 days) or in 2 days (i.e., on the 3rd); the gain may triple, sevenfold his capital; after 2 days (i.e., again on the 3rd) he appears for the first time under Lisa's windows; after 7 days, she smiles at him for the first time - and so on. Even the surname G. - and that now sounds like a strange, German echo French name Saint Germain, from whom the countess received the secret of the three cards.

But, barely hinting at the mysterious circumstances that his hero becomes a slave to, the author again focuses the reader's attention on the reasonableness, prudence, and planning of G.; he thinks through everything - right down to Lizaveta Ivanovna's reaction to his Love letters. Having obtained from her consent to a date (and therefore - having received detailed plan at home and advice on how to get into it), G. sneaks into the countess's office, waits for her to return from the ball - and, frightening half to death, tries to find out the coveted secret. The arguments that he brings in his favor are extremely diverse; from the proposal "to make up the happiness of my life" to reasoning about the benefits of thrift; from the readiness to take the Countess's sin upon one's soul, even if it is connected "with the ruin of eternal bliss, with the devil's pact" to the promise to honor Anna Fedotovna "as a shrine" and from generation to generation. (This is a paraphrase of the liturgical prayer “The Lord shall reign forever, your God, Zion, generation and generation.”) G. agrees to everything, because he does not believe in anything: neither in the “destruction of eternal bliss”, nor in the shrine; these are only incantatory formulas, "sacred-legal" conditions of a possible contract. Even "something resembling remorse" that echoed in his heart when he heard the steps of Liza, deceived by him, is no longer able to awaken in him; he became petrified, like a dead statue.

Realizing that the Countess is dead, G. sneaks into Lizaveta Ivanovna's room - not in order to repent before her, but in order to dot the "and"; to untie the knot of a love plot, which is no longer needed, “... all this was not love! Money - that's what his soul yearned for! A harsh soul, - Pushkin clarifies. Why, then, twice in the course of one chapter (IV) does the author lead the reader to compare the cold G. with Napoleon, who for people is the first half of XIX in. embodied the idea of ​​romantic fearlessness in a game with fate? First, Lisa recalls a conversation with Tomsky (G. has a “truly romantic face” - “the profile of Napoleon, and the soul of Mephistopheles”), then follows a description of G., sitting on the window with folded arms and surprisingly resembling a portrait of Napoleon ...

First of all, Pushkin (as later on Gogol) depicts a new, bourgeois world that has been reduced to pieces. Although all the passions, the symbols of which are the cards in the story, remained the same, but evil lost its “heroic” appearance, changed its scale. Napoleon longed for glory - and boldly went to fight with the whole universe; the modern "Napoleon", G. craves money - and wants to book his fate. The "former" Mephistopheles threw at the feet of Faust the whole world; The "current" Me-fisto is only capable of frightening the old countess to death with an unloaded pistol (and the modern Faust from Pushkin's ♦ Scenes from Faust, 1826, with which the Queen of Spades is associated, is mortally bored). From here it is a stone's throw to the "Napoleonism" of Rodion Raskolnikov, united with the image of G. by ties of literary kinship ("Crime and Punishment" by F. M. Dostoevsky); Raskolnikov, for the sake of an idea, will sacrifice an old pawnbroker (the same personification of fate as an old countess) and her innocent sister Lizaveta Ivanovna (the name of a poor pupil). However, the opposite is also true: the evil was reduced, but remained the same evil; The “Napoleonic” posture of G., the posture of the master of fate, who suffered a defeat, but did not reconcile with him - crossed arms - indicates a proud contempt for the world, which is emphasized by the “parallel” with Lisa, sitting opposite and humbly folding her arms in a cross.

However, the voice of conscience will once again speak in G. - three days after the fateful night, during the funeral of the unwittingly killed old woman. He decides to ask her for forgiveness - but even here he will act for reasons of moral gain, and not for moral reasons proper. The deceased may have bad influence on his life - and it is better to mentally repent before her in order to get rid of this influence.

And then the author, who consistently changes the literary residence of his hero (in the first chapter, he is a potential character adventurous romance; in the second - the hero of a fantastic story in the spirit of E.-T.-A. Hoffmann; in the third, the protagonist of the story is social and everyday, the plot of which gradually returns to its adventurous origins), again sharply “switches” the tone of the narration.